You probably remember the online outrage over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) copyright enforcement proposal. Last week, the Department of Commerce's Internet Policy Task Force released a report on digital copyright policy that endorsed one piece of the controversial proposal: making the streaming of copyrighted works a felony.

I think it's the system that corrupts people - likely without them even realising it. In the same way that a group of individually decent people is capable of pretty heinous and shocking acts. It's only when they get detached from that group and face their actions that they realise what they've done.

The problem is that the current system encourages people not to question their actions because you get less punishment if you get caught and can shift the blame elsewhere than if you blow the whistle. And if compliance is the expected behaviour in your group/society, then it will eventually turn you into a compliant person as well in that position.

Excuses are usually like:
"It's an order from above."
"I had received wrong information."
"My job is to represent my shareholders/clients."

Often all of this is true. Obama is mainly getting his information from established groups/people such as lobbyists who simply represent their client and do not care about the public because that is not their job. Surely these established groups have more experience in this field and have more authority than the general public and hence should be taken more seriously? I think it's pretty similar to the Milgram experiment.

Then throw in some actually evil people and you get a very rotten system.

So if you want to fix the system, then start by making it more attractive to blow the whistle than to cover your ass by shifting the blame. That way you encourage people to think for themselves again. Unfortunately it's a self-sustaining system as most people aren't interested (anymore) in more responsibility.